Monday, July 25, 2011

Panda Sketching at Guadalupe Center's Summer Enrichment Program

Marti Koehler asked me to teach a few summer art classes at the Guadalupe Center in Immokalee, so I adjusted my Elementary school Panda Sketching lesson for shorter sessions for younger students.I was very impressed with the discipline and artistic skill displayed by the 3-5 year old artists. No wonder there is a huge waiting list for this pre-K center.My sincere thanks to the dedicated teachers and staff for their support with class management and distribution and collection of art supplies last week. Your help was essential for the smooth work flow and efficient resetting of the Performance Arts classroom during the consecutive 30 minute sessions for each student group.On my last day at the center the regular art room was occupied, so I had the opportunity to visit three of the students' classrooms for their respective art sessions.The younger kids were told to color and draw on the panda card stock template directly with the Crayola Super Tip markers.The older students were instructed to first trace the panda template to exercise their eye-hand coordination and then to customize the image to their liking by adding their own background elements.Budding artists with their finished projects.Once the students completed their projects, they got a Nakamura paper airplane for their next playtime period.Also managed to speed sketch a personalized cartoon portrait for most of the students that attended one of the 11 sessions I taught at the center. The positive experience reminded me of how rewarding early childhood education programs can be and to consider them as a possible avenue or component of my future teaching plans.

2 comments:

martikoehler.com
said...

wow, Alberto, well done coverage of the guadalupe experience. your mastery of technology makes this an impressive overview. i will forward this to Desmond Barrett, director of Childhood Education. Thanks for your hard work and enthusiasm.Marti Koehler

Welcome to Cartoon Sketching Manga Style Support Blog

Collection of cartoon speed sketches with heavy influence from Japanese comics (Manga), animated feature films, and TV series (Anime). Cartooning Classes support materials and samples of students' work. Art supplies reviews for customizing your child's sketching kit.Chronicles of my nieces' artistic development. For a quick list of recommended art reference and instruction books and suggested tools for sketching kits please keep scrolling all the way down on this right column.

82637 - Fantasy Creature Design (age 8-12) Design and sketch creatures typical of Japanese comics. New and experienced drawing students are welcomed due to the one-on-one instruction.Sat, Apr11 - Apr11, 12:15PM-3:15PM [1 meeting]

Half-Day Weekday Art Workshops - (age 5-11)

83085 - Robots, Ninjas, & Monsters (age K5-11) T4 Learn about the three classic archetypes that often appear in Japanese comics as heroes and villains. Learn to sketch your own versions of these archtypes to include in your booklet.

Wed, Jan7, 1:00PM-4:00PM [1 meeting]

83086 - Robots, Ninjas, & Monsters (age K5-11) T3

Wed, Feb4, 1:00PM-4:00PM [1 meeting]

83087 - Robots, Ninjas, & Monsters (age K5-11) T2

Wed, Mar4, 1:00PM-4:00PM [1 meeting]

83088 - Robots, Ninjas, & Monsters (age K5-11) T1

Wed, Mar11, 1:00PM-4:00PM [1 meeting]

Cartoon Sketching Anime & Manga Characters and Creatures-(age 5-12)

82611 - No class Jan 19, 2015. Mon, Jan12 - Feb2, 5:15PM-6:45PM

[3 meetings]

82646 - Mon, Feb9 - Feb23, 5:15PM - 6:45PM [3 meetings]

82647 - Mon, Mar2 - Mar16, 5:15PM - 6:45PM [3 meetings]

82648 - Mon, Apr6 - Apr20, 5:15PM - 6:45PM [3 meetings]

82659 - Mon, May4 - May18, 5:15PM - 6:45PM [3 meetings]

Happy sketching!

Durham Arts Council - Fall 2014

Cartoon Sketching Anime & Manga Characters and

Creatures (Ages 5-12)

Sharpen eye-hand coordination and drawing skills while creating characters and fantasy creatures found in action and super hero movies, Japanese animation, and comic books. Create a cast and design a world to tell your own stories through comics or illustrated mini books. Class is suitable for beginners as well as advanced students that wish to continue to refine their sketching skills and try new art materials. Listed subtitles are flexible enough, so that each student may focus on the theme of their preference.

14F415.2 Wednesday, 5:30-7:15 PMOctober 15 - October 29 (3 weeks)

14F415.3 Wednesday, 5:30-7:15 PM November 5 –

November 19 (3 weeks)

Also perform for kids' birthday party entertainment, events, and fundraisers with customized 1-2 hours cartooning workshops where kids learn how to sketch dragons, ninjas, mermaids, princesses, and fairies while getting their cartoon portraits drawn. Average speed: 12-15 black & white sketches per hour.

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About Me

Alberto Lung ("Lung" being the Spanish-spelling for "Dragon" in Chinese) completed a Master of Science and worked in Food Safety/Brand Protection for a few years before returning to his artistic roots. As a self-taught artist combining a scientific academic background, a passion for archaeology and mythology, and some Manga inspiration, I currently design and teach cartoon-sketching workshops for children to promote their visual literacy and creativity. I often rely on speed-sketching demonstrations of ninjas and fantasy creatures to engage young audiences and introduce them to suitable art supplies to develop their drawing skills. Love to sketch Sci-Fi and action figure concepts (robots, ninjas, and monsters) while searching for cool art supplies.
Feel free to contact me if you need another opinion or advice on selecting your art supplies.

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Selecting Kids' Art Supplies basics and a couple of tips

1. Initial supplies: a pack of printer paper and something to draw and color like crayons and regular pencils available at any retailer or local arts and crafts store would be a sensible start. When learning to draw one must go through many practice sketches and fill many doodle pages to loosen up, so it is smart to start with whatever inexpensive tools are already at hand. Once committed to developing your illustration skills, you can gradually try artist grade materials and be able to better appreciate their advantages.

3. Paper selection: a ream of copy/printer paper is a good value choice for warm-up and practice drawings. For sturdier support choose some scrapbooking paper or 8.5"X11" white card stock. A 9"X12" - 11" X 14" hardbound sketchbook is ideal for documenting each kid's artistic development. A spiral-bound sketchbook is a practical choice for field sketching.

5. A few creators to look up for inspiration: Osamu Tezuka, Hayao Miyazaki, & Ben Caldwell.For further reference and other artists’ work check the art books and collections in the Manga/Anime section of your local library and bookstores.

6. What to draw: Choose what you like, for you are bound to draw and practice more often whatever subject you enjoy most. Though every once in a while focus on areas that you might find more challenging and commit a few sketchbook pages to them. Art wooden manikins, family members, plastic animals, and action figures can serve as handy reference models. You might also find yourself particularly motivated after reading some good books or exciting comics, watching a movie or some anime, or attending a theatrical performance. Always have a sketching kit ready to take advantage of those times when you are particularly inspired and charged creatively.

7. If you would like to draw better, sketch everywhere as often as you can: I believe that everyone can draw. It naturally takes hard work and lots of practice to develop your skills. Just like with any sports and other artistic endeavors, proficiency requires constant practice. The beauty of sketching and drawing is that the process is so much fun and that the minimum materials required are quite affordable and portable. Attending workshops and classes available in your area will expose you to other artists' methods and styles and help you find your own style more quickly. There are many books and online resources to help you along the way. I have compiled a list of some of my favorite reference books near the bottom of this column.

5. Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens provide waterproof archival inks with a variety of nib sizes packaged in convenient sets or open stock. Excellent choice for drawing and coloring. Now also available in Big Brush format for quick coverage of large areas and large scale drawing.

9. Mitsubishi Hi-Uni pencils are in my opinion the best graphite wooden pencils available in the World, and we are quite lucky that they are now available in the USA.

Sample Sketching Kits

1. Minimal Starter kit: handful of copy paper sheets and pen or pencilis all that’s needed to start doodling. A clipboard is handy for support and keeping sketches neatly together. A 0.5 mm mechanical pencil would be a good choice since it doesn’t require sharpening and often features a small eraser .

2. Compact Take-anywhere kit: a small 3½" × 5½"Moleskine-type sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, and a nice black gel pen can easily fit in a jacket pocket for sketching anywhere.

3. Regular field kit: a small shoulder bag loaded with a 7" × 10"-9" × 12" double wire bound Canson Field Sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, acouple ofFaber-Castell Pitt Artistpens, a waterbrush, and a small watercolor crayonsset can cover most situations on a moment’s notice.

Drawing Books to check out at the local library or bookstore

2. Books for kids of all ages: "Action Cartooning" and "Fantasy Cartooning" by Ben Caldwell, "The Art of Animal Drawing" by Ken Hultgren, "Let's Toon Caricatures" by Keelan Parham, and "Cartoon Animation" by Preston Blair.

3. Books for older kids: "Drawing the Head & Figure", "Cartooning the Head & Figure", "How to Draw Animals", "Drawing Scenery" by Jack Hamm, and "Face Off How to Draw Amazing Caricatures & Comic Portraits" by Harry Hamernik.

4. Books for teenagers: "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth" by Andrew Loomis (Though originally published in 1943, it is still probably the best book for a solid artistic foundation on figure drawing), "How to Draw Manga Sketching Manga-Style" by Hikaru Hayashi, “How to draw Anime & Gamer Characters” series by Tadashi Ozawa, "Incredible Comics with Tom Nguyen", and "Dynamic Figure Drawing" by Burne Hogarth. Though harder to find, some art books by Japanese Artists can provide a broader perspective: look up the work of Tetsuya Nomura, Hayao Miyazaki, and Capcom's Bengus. Worth a look: "Groundwork of Evangelion the Movie 1", "The Art of Final Fantasy IX" published by Brady Games, "Rahxephon-Official Illustration Collection", and Capcom & SNK Video Games Design and Character Illustration books. "Street Fighter Tribute" by Udon is a nice collection of SF art created by a wide array of artists.

5. Book on Comics creation: Take a look at Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics", "Reinventing Comics", and "Making Comics".

6. Books on Human Anatomy and Figure Drawing: Even when the goal is to draw mainly in a manga/cartoon style, a working knowledge and understanding of human anatomy can significantly improve the believability of your characters.To that end I would recommend the following Dover value books: “Bridgman’s Life Drawing” by George B. Bridgman, “Drawing the Living Figure” and “Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists” by Joseph Sheppard.